


Out

by TheIceQueen



Series: Sam's blue book [8]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Begging Sam Winchester, Begging for help, Caring Dean Winchester, Confusion, Dean Carrying Sam, Driving, Hurt/Comfort, Impala, Injury, Major Character Injury, Medical, Mother Hen Dean Winchester, Pain, Poor Sam Winchester, Protective Dean Winchester, Surgery, Unconsciousness, Worried Dean
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-31
Updated: 2018-04-07
Packaged: 2019-04-16 04:07:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,193
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14156361
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheIceQueen/pseuds/TheIceQueen
Summary: Sam dislocates his knee but Dean is worried that something else it wrong too.





	1. Chapter 1

The scream coming from the other side of the graveyard was not of fear. Sam’s voice was distorted in pain and nothing else. The way the sound made chills down Dean’s back, testified to an injury he had to do something about fast.

“Sam!”

There was no answer. He checked the fire in the open grave and was satisfied that the sprit must be gone by now and ran to the place the scream had come from.

“Sam! Where the hell are you?!”

Running away from the fire had left him with less to no night-vision. It would take a minute for his eyes to adjust, time he didn’t have. He had to go from sound by now, but Sam was quiet.

“Dammit Sam!”

“Dean?” Sam sounded confused he could have been knocked out for a second. A scream followed, he wasn’t confused anymore. It was just pain.

Dean sprinted towards the sound and just as his eyes started to cooperate he found Sam rolled up next to a tombstone. He was on his side, holding his knee to his chest and he was still screaming. He didn’t seem to even notice Dean before his had his hand on his shoulder.

“Sam. What?”

Sam panted and growled in pain. Every muscle in his body and face were tense. “Knee.”

Dean took a hold on Sam’s lover leg. He only held it steady and didn’t try to move it. “Breathe. I’ve got it.”

Sam rolled a bit more to his back. The movement made him scream out again and Dean almost let go, but they had to get out of there and they couldn’t really call and ambulance to a graveyard with a burning grave.

“Let me do it. Sammy.” Sam shook his head and held on tighter.

Dean took his brother’s wrist and moved his hand away from the leg. Sam’s hand desperate looked for something to hold on to and finally grabbed on tight to the edge of the stone. “Sammy rest for a second.”

Dean could see that Sam was trying his best to relax his body but, no dice. It was too painful. “I won’t move it right now. We have time, we’re in the middle of nowhere. Sammy let go. Let me see.”

Slowly Sam loosened his other hand and placed it on his chest. For the first time, since Dean had found him, he rested his head back onto the ground and the other leg seemed to go limp too. His breathing was still extremely fast, and Dean wondered if he would pass out from the pain.

While letting Sam gather himself, he looked at the scene. There was a small amount of blood on the stone and a bloody hole in Sam’s jeans. Sam must have knocked his knee on the stone and twisted it. Judging from the way the lover leg was turned, the knee was clearly dislocated, maybe there was something broken too.

“Sammy?”

“It’s out. Set it!”

“It might be broken too, it’s not safe.”

Sam’s eyes were squeezed shot in pain but shaking his head in frustration made Dean understand that the puppy-dog-eyes were right underneath.

“Dean.” Sam’s voice cracked and Dean for a moment wasn’t sure the spirit was all gone, something definitely punched him in the gut.

“Let’s get you straightened out first. Can’t do anything like this.” Dean held on a bit tighter to the leg and Sam, who obviously knew what was coming, grabbed on to the tombstone with the other hand too.

Dean started to draw the leg towards him, slowly, just to get it away from Sam’s chest. There was no way he was able to carry Sam all curled up like that. Sam clenched his teeth and pulled at the stone as if to get away from his own leg. The growl of pain most definitely would have been another gut-wrenching scream if he’d had the air to do it.

“I’ve got you buddy. Breathe or you’ll pass out.”

Dean knew that passing out probably sounded pretty good to Sam right now, but it would be way easier to get him to the car if he was able to help just a little. The leg wasn’t straight, from either angle, but Dean estimated that this had to be it, he could possibly hurt Sam even more if he tried to move it again.

“Okay, let’s get to the car, so you can get some help. What do you say?”

It wasn’t really a question, Dean had already pulled Sam’s one arm over his shoulders before he was done talking. Sam didn’t talk, Dean understood that he was concentrating hard on not passing out from the pain, and that meant controlling his breathing, they’d been in situations like this before. This was bad however, Dean felt Sam clinging on to him like he was actually afraid that he would stumble and fall on his leg. For now, he just had to concentrate on getting Sam to the car and the fact that this was not a life-threatening injury.

The walk wasn’t long, but with Sam only using one leg and having to stop to breathe every few feet, it took longer than Dean would’ve thought.

Suddenly their shadows moved, got longer and shifted to the other side. That’s when Dean heard the car. Someone was there. The car stopped, and a door slammed. Dean couldn’t turn to look but if they had parked right behind them they would have already seen the smoke from the grave, they would at least have smelled something burning.

“That’s it Sammy. We need to move now.” He hunched down and put his free arm under both of Sam’s knees. “C’mon big guy. Hang on tight.” He pulled Sam up and for a moment he was sure he was going to fall over backwards, but he regained control, and with Sam holding on for dear life around his neck, trying not to make any sound. Dean made it to Baby just in time to lay his brother on the backseat before he passed out.

* * *

The excruciating pain Sam woke up to was spreading throughout his entire body, but with the next bump in the road he realized that it all started with his knee. He gagged as he didn’t have time to draw in air enough for a scream.

“You awake?”

Sam opened his eyes. He was in the backseat of the Impala. He could feel them moving, but how fast or what direction wasn’t important. The only thing he thought of was the bumps in the road, making the constant pain in and around his knee, flare up and make his vision blurry. By the next bump he had air enough to scream. It was better when he screamed. The pain was too much to keep inside his body.

“Damn holes! Sorry, Sammy. Sorry baby. Just half a mile and we’re of the dirt road.”

Sam panted for air and tried to gather himself enough to look down his leg. He was sure there would be blood, a lot of it, and most likely some kind of foreign object penetrating it all the way through, maybe more than one. He was finally able to take a decent breath and look down.

There was nothing on him, nothing piercing or squeezing his knee, there wasn’t even that much blood from the small tear in his jeans. In fact, it had already stopped bleeding. Sam was confused, until he noticed his pantleg being more tight than usual around the knee, and it didn’t look right. The form was just wrong. Then he saw the lover leg and foot. It was definitely wrong. The leg was turned in a crooked angle and the foot was too far to the side. His leg was with no doubt dislocated. He remembered now. The case. Running through the graveyard hoping that Dean would burn the remains sooner rather than later. Hitting the tombstone with his knee, and the feeling of twisting and cracking and then the pain. The pain was worse now. Maybe it was the swelling or maybe he just didn’t have more adrenaline in his system.

Another bump made him scream out again as his sight went black, he almost rolled of the seat as the car turned.

“Were on the pavement now. No more potholes.”

“Dean.” Sam was still in pain. His knee was all wrong, and something was pressing on something it shouldn’t.

“Just another mile. I have to make sure were not followed. Hang in there.”

That mile took forever. Sam was almost beginning to miss the potholes, just to have something distract him from the constant pain, even if that thing had to be more pain. The car slowed down and turned, and Dean shot off the engine. Before Sam knew it, Dean had opened the door by his feet.

“Dean, set it.” Sam hissed the words through his teeth.

“Sam. Not now, I’m not sure if something is broken.”

Sam laid his head back with a deep sigh and closed his eyes. He couldn’t take this much longer.

“Let me just cut your jeans, the swelling looks constricted in there. It might help.”

Sam didn’t say anything. He just let Dean slice the pantleg with his knife. In any other circumstances Sam would have been watching everything to make sure Dean didn’t accidently cut him, but now, he just lay there, one arm over his face and the other grabbing on to whatever part of the seat was closest.

The pantleg loosened around his knee as a cuff measuring blood pressure coming off the arm, if that arm was broken. Sam breathed a little easier, but the internal pain was still too much.

“Dean, please.” He didn’t lift his arm from his face, but Dean’s hesitation in what to do next was enough to reassure Sam that he’d understood.

“Where's your damn book?”

For a second Sam didn’t know what Dean was talking about, but then it came clear; Dean had decided that it was too far to drive to the hospital with him like this, and it wasn’t like they could go to the local-no-nothing-about-nothing doctor in the middle of the night with no explanation, and people out looking for strangers.

Sam started fumbling to open the button on his shirt pocket but doing so he needed two hands and he shifted on the seat and ended up moving his leg. He gasped and grabbed on to whatever he could with both hands to steady himself.

“I got it. Just lay still will you.”

Dean ran around the car and slowly opened the door by Sam’s head, giving Sam time to hold his head for as long as it took Dean to get a knee in, he could lean it on while Dean picked the book from the pocket. He closed the door carefully and came around again, so Sam could see him.

“I… I don’t care about damage. Just set it.” Sam was one the edge of passing out again, and no matter how good that sounded to him right now, he knew it wouldn’t last and that he would wake up to this all over again.

“Hang in there, Sam. Just a bit longer.” Dean was flipping the pages in the book frantically. “Let me just find someone to at least call.”

There was a lot of names in the book by now. Sam had written down every name, named by every hunter they’d met for almost three years now. But it wasn’t long ago Bobby had told him about a contact in Johnson. That wasn’t far.

“Johnson.”

Dean flipped a page more and must had found what Sam was talking about. He stopped flipping pages and put the book in his own pocket. “That’s it. It wont take long to get there.” He stepped back to close the door.

“Dean!”

Sam was gasping for air and he was starting to get the chills. “You have to set it.”

Dean looked worried for the first time. “Is it that bad? It won’t take more than an hour.”

Sam knew that an hour of driving usually wasn’t much for them, even with injuries, but the thought of just waiting for Dean to start the car was too much. He was going to pass out, throw op or lose all control and roll of the seat or all the above.

“Please.” His voice cracked again and this time he was sure that if he had to talk anymore he would end up full on sobbing.

The look on Dean’s face didn’t help with his stomach acting up. If they had an injury they didn’t knew how to treat safely they would only do something if it was life-threatening. They weren’t doctors and they knew too many hunters with permanent disabilities because they didn’t seek help. Dean was clearly in doubt. He had set a knee before, but they weren’t sure that it was only dislocated, hell, Sam was positive that something else was going on in there. He just couldn’t bare it anymore.

“Okay. I’ll try. But it might not get better.”

Sam drew a breath of relief, but a short one. Dean stretched out his leg out again, so the foot was out the door. Sam knocked his head hard on the other door and yelled some kind of profanity that neither of them understood.

“Hang on Sam.”

It wasn’t a snap with a following relief as any time they had something dislocated. This was longer. His lover leg was turned and pulled at the same time and the entire leg felt like it was electrocuted. He couldn’t help but tense his entire body and grind his teeth. The sound from the joint was almost worse than the pain. It spread up through his spine and made him feel it in his skull. Bone grinding on bone. A small snap made him scream out and punch the back of the driver’s seat. Then he fell limp down on the seat, again hitting his head on the door. He laid there, limp, only his cheat was moving.

* * *

Dean looked at Sam through the rearview mirror, and he was sure this wasn’t fixed. The knee wasn’t really set, he could feel it. He’d taken the time to check the pulse in Sam’s ankle before pulling him more upright in the car, so the knee didn’t have to be bent as much. He’d checked it again before driving, and both times it was fast but almost not there. Sam was passed out but was beginning to show signs of pain again, and soon he would wake up, it had only been ten minutes. He just hoped that he hadn’t done any further damage and at least the pain was slightly lessened, but from the sounds Sam was making, he didn’t have much faith in that.

“Dean?”

“We’re almost there, sleepyhead.” Dean knew that wasn’t quite true. “Good of you to wake up. It so much more of a hassle to carry you while unconscious.”

Sam’s only response was a sound, somewhere between a growl and a moan.

“How’re you doing?”

“Bit better, I think.”

“Well at least you’re able to talk in full sentences now.” That was the only comfort Dean had to hold on to. His brother was still sweating bullets and breathing too fast, and then there was the pale face, that didn’t come from blood loss. “So, tell me about Johnson. I called the clinic and mentioned Bobby as it said in the book, and some guy just said that we should come in the back way and then he hung up on me.”

He looked at his brother trough the mirror again. He was struggling to stay upright against the door, it looked like he was on the edge of passing out, but every few seconds the pain got worse and pulled him back.

“Bobby got a call from a doctor in Johnson. It sounded like bad news, but he left the room, so I don’t know. Shit!” Sam must have tried to move or something.

“You okay?” Stupid question, but Dean had no idea of how else to ask if his brother was holding it together. Sam took his time and used a few deep breaths to gather himself.

“No. Not really. How far?”

Dean checked the time. It would take at least half an hour more. “Not long, Sammy. Not long. Just hang in there. What about that phone call?”

Sam laid his head back and looked like he tried to relax. “When Bobby came back he gave me the address and told me to save it with the others. If we mentioned Bobby they would help, no questions asked.”

“No questions. What does that mean? Don’t they know what we do?”

Sam didn’t answer. Dean looked back. He wasn’t unconscious, but his eyes were squeezed shot and his jaw locked.

Dean would have speed up if he didn’t have the pedal to the floor already.


	2. Chapter 2

Dean pulled up to the back of a little clinic.

JOHNSON CLINIC

George and Trent Pagett MD – Dani Pagett DVM

 “Be right back Sam.”

Sam only saw the back of Dean as sprinted from the Impala and jumped the three steps up to the light-blue wooden door. He disappeared through it without knocking. Sam sat still. The pain didn’t give him permission to sleep or even relax, so he could only hold still to keep it from getting worse. His body was tense, it had to be. He couldn’t concentrate on anything else, he couldn’t even loosen his jaw to speak when the door in front of him opened and a young man told him to keep still while they got him out of the other door.

The door behind him opened slowly and Dean’s hands was on his back and shoulders. An extra set of hands joined, and he was lifted backwards out of the car. He breathed faster, but no matter what he did to prevent it, the electrocuting came back and brought a burning with it that lingered in his foot, and he couldn’t help but scream out again. He arced his back and neck back only to have his head land in Dean’s arm.

“Almost there. Are you with me? Sammy?”

Sam heard Dean’s voice and felt him holding him from falling to the ground, but the pain had taken away his sight and his ability to form words that would be understood. He heard a female voice and then he was on something. It moved so he gathered it must be a gurney or something like it.

“Sammy? You here?” Sam was sure it was Dean who placed a hand on his shoulder.

Sam nodded and earned a squeeze from the hand. His eyes started working again and he barely got to see the ceiling moving before he was stationary.

“Did you try to set this?” The voice belonged to the man that talked to him before they pulled him from the car. Dean looked at Sam and then in the direction of the voice.

“Yeah. He basically begged me too, he has a high threshold for pain so…”

“It’s alright.” Dean got cut off by the man. “I don’t think you could have made it worse. We just have to do this now, before the swelling cuts of the blood flow completely.”

Someone small took his hand. Startled, he looked down and into the eyes of a young blonde woman. “I’m just giving you something for the pain, guess you have been wanting that for a while.”

The constant pain in his leg was still too much to handle and him tensing up kept him from speaking still, but he managed to nod slightly and lay down. He looked up at Dean who still had his hand on his shoulder.

The needle went in his hand and he just waited. Waited for the pain to be gone, for him to be able to relax his body, which he wasn’t sure he could manage to keep from going limp much longer. Waited for Dean to stop being worried. Sam could see it even when Dean tried to hide it behind jokes and encouraging speeches. He just wanted this madness to stop and slowly but surely the bear trap around his knee was loosened, finally he was able to rest for a second and even breathe somewhat normal.

He felt hands on his lover leg and immediately tensed up again, grinding his teeth. “I’m just taking a look, I know it hurts when we lift it but hang in there.”

“You heard the man, Sam. Rest for a bit.” Dean looked down at him, but Sam had trouble getting eye-contact. His vision was getting kinda blurry and his head was getting heavy. “I see the painkillers are working.”

Sam sensed a smile on his brothers face before he had to give in and close his eyes for a moment. He wasn’t out, he saw slivers of light and if he concentrated he could open his eyes to almost see clearly, for a second or two. The knee was still very much a part of his reality, it hurt when they lifted his leg, not like before but enough to make him moan and turn his head to the side. He’d lost the control he had before. Now he could only move so fast and he wasn’t really sure in what direction he should move.

“Hold him.”

Sam realized that something was going to happen, but he didn’t connect the dots until he felt Dean’s other hand on his other shoulder. Pinning him to the mattress. He opened his eyes all that he was able to, which wasn’t much. Dean was over him nodding at someone behind him.

“Dean?”

“Breathe Sammy.”

The sound was worst at first. The snap and crack sending waves through all of his skeleton and turned up the volume in his skull. The pain came after. Sam’s back arced and his head was violently pressing back in the mattress. He screamed louder than he’d done all night. Both his hands grabbed on tight to Dean’s arms and his good leg was flopping around behind Dean trying to get a grip on the surface to push him away from the pain. Just as Sam thought he was going to lose his mind the hands put his leg down and within seconds the burning inside the joint diminished to almost nothing.

His brother loosened the grip on him, but still had one hand on his shoulder.

“Sammy. You still with us?”

Dean was breathless. It must have been a struggle to hold him down. Sam didn’t bother to open his eyes, and just nodded. He was to busy with enjoying the feeling of letting his breathing fall back in order by itself and only slight pain in his knee.

“How’s your pain?” The woman was back next to him. He felt her hand on his upper arm. He turned his head from Dean to her, but still didn’t open his eyes.

“Not bad now.”

“We can give you more morphine. Take the pain away completely.”

Sam was already content with the throbbing being there and the burning inside wasn’t that bad as long as he kept it still. From what he’d come from this was better that he could have imagined. “I’m good. Thanks.”

Sam relaxed his neck and let his head lie heavy on the bed. “Sammy take the drugs.” Dean was using his big-brother voice. If he hadn’t been so tired Sam might have laughed.

“Give him the morphine.”

There was a small moment of silence in the room and then Sam felt the small hands on his again. Confused he turned his head to Dean and opened his eyes just a little.

“Just go to sleep will you.” Dean smiling was the last thing Sam saw before his knee vanished and his whole body became weightless. Someone lifted his head to lay a pillow under it and then he was out.

* * *

“He’ll be out for a few hours at least. Do you want coffee?” Dean was sure the young blonde man couldn’t have been older than thirty. He seemed confident though, even after two strangers just came tumbling in to their probably normal Wednesday. Dean looked at Sam, he was sound asleep and for the first time in hours he seemed to not be in pain.

“Dani will stay with him. She’s only a vet but she’s quite capable.” He sent his sister a smile.

“Hey. Better grades, and don’t forget I was a nurse first, still done before you. Just saying.”

The man held his hands up in a surrendering gesture and smiled. Then he showed Dean to the kitchen. Before leaving the room, Dean made Dani promise that she’d let him know as soon as Sam was awake.

“Did I hear it right, that your name is Dean and the other guy is Sam?”

“That’s us. The sign outside said George, Trent and Dani Padgett, right?” Dean sat down by the small kitchen table while the man started on the coffee. “Right. Dani is my little sister and George was our farther. He died a few months ago.”

“Sorry to hear that.” Dean was uncomfortable. This conversation had taken a turn where he wasn’t sure how to turn it back to what he really wanted to talk about; Sam.

“Thanks.” Trent sat down at the table too. “Now, Sam’s knee is in place, but I’m not sure were out of the woods quite yet. We’ll need to make sure nothing is broken, but I don’t think it is.”

Dean looked at the young man. If he didn’t think it was broken why was he worried that it wasn’t over. “What then?”

“The knee was completely dislocated, nothing was where it needed to be, and the fact that you had tried to set if earlier lead me to believe that it was twisted too.” He looked at Dean for confirmation.

“His food was turned quite far outwards.”

Trent nodded. “That’s what I thought. I’ll take a look with an ultrasound, to see how much damage is done to the tendons. But we’ll have to wait for the swelling to go down to get a clear enough view.”

He got up to bring over the coffee. He brought milk and sugar to the table too, but Dean needed it black, right now. Trent cracked open the door to the clinic and popped his head inside. “Did you ice his knee?”

“Well of course, I’m sure the skin would have split open soon if I hadn’t.” Trent shook his head and closed the door. He was smiling when he sat down again.

“Sisters. Got one?”

Dean looked at the now closed door. “No. It’s just me and Sam. Brothers.” He emptied the kop and looked up at the doctor. “If the knee is still busted, then what?”

“It depends on why you came here.”

Dean didn’t get it. They’d driven there because where the hell else would they go?

“Did you come here because it was closest, and you had to do something fast, or because you can’t go to the hospital for some reason.”

It couldn’t have been the first time, hunters stumbled on this clinic. Dean got the feeling that Trent knew just enough to help but not much more.

“Will he need surgery?”

“Most likely, and if it’s a fairly easy fix I can do it here, but a hospital is always safer.”

It was always better to lay low in their kind of work, and Sam would most likely fight him on it, but if these two wasn’t completely sure they could make him as good as new, Dean would drag him to a hospital. There was no way of knowing any of that right now. They just had to wait.

“How many of our kind have you had to help?” Dean was curious about where they had ended up and since they had nothing else to do, he’d might as well dig a bit into the family who possibly was going to cut into his brother.

“None. Since dad died. To be honest we’d both helped out a few times but never talked to anyone other than him. He didn’t let us into that part of his life.”

“But you called Bobby?”

Keith poured then both another cup of coffee. “My dad left a letter, telling us that Bobby saved his life, years back and that’s why he’d been helping. He asked us to carry on his promise to him as long as Bobby was alive. So, I called him and told him that we would help anyone who said that he’d sent them.”

Dean was stunned, this was maybe even crazier that what he and Sam did. “So, you have no idea about what we do?”

“We don’t, and since dad never told us when he was alive or in the letter we figured that he didn’t wanted us to know, so we decided to keep it that way.”

Dean shook his head in amazement and took another sip of his coffee.

* * *

Sam was still tired when he woke up. For a second, he was confused, then he felt his knee throbbing and remembered everything.

“Dean?”

“Hey. Good to see you awake again.” The blonde woman came close fast and checked his pulse. “Are you in pain?”

“Yeah. I guess, a little.” Sam wasn’t sure what he was feeling, his head, legs and arms were heavy, but the knee was definitely bothering him.

“I’ll give you a bit more for the pain and then I’ll get Dean. He’s in the kitchen.”

Sam watched the woman walking to the other side of the bed and pick up his hand. He was sure he was sure he would fall asleep if it was the same as before. “You don’t have to get him. I’ll be sleeping anyway.”

The woman smiled and pressed the drugs to the attachment in his hand. “This is not as strong. Besides, he made me promise and to be honest he scares me a bit.”

She opened the door to the kitchen. “He’s awake.”

Dean was first in. Passing the woman before she even got out of the doorway.

“Hey Sam. See your beauty sleep wasn’t long enough.” Dean was at his side before he was done talking. Sam didn’t have time to get his sleepy head in order to find an answer before the doctor was by his other side.

“Hello Sam. How are you feeling?”

Sam took status after the new drugs had started to work. “Not bad really. She…” he looked at the woman.

“Dani.” She smiled back. “And that’s my brother Trent.”

Sam nodded. “Dani gave me some more for the pain.”

“Let me just check on the swelling, we need for it to go down before doing anything else.”

Sam nodded and laid back on the pillow. What more was there to do? Wasn’t his leg good by now? He looked up at Dean who seemed to pick up on his insecurity. “It’s good Sam. He just need to make sure it’s okay.”

“I’ll explain everything in a second Sam.”

* * *

Two hours later Trent checked the knee again and he found that the swelling was almost gone so he could do the ultrasound. Dani pulled over the machine.

“Tell me if you need more for the pain. We can still give you more.”

Sam nodded at her and looked at Dean, just to make sure he was still in the room. He wasn’t exactly nervous, but it was always better to have someone there who wasn’t pumped up on drugs to get all the information. Dean was sitting on a chair in a corner a few feet from Sam’s head and was paying close attention. Sam laid back and wished that this stranger wouldn’t touch his knee anymore, but he knew that wasn’t happening, so he settled with hoping that this would be fairly painless.

The ultrasound wasn’t exactly comfortable, but he managed to make it trough without tensing and grinding his teeth. When Trent was done Dani packed the machine away as he sat down next to Sam. Sam knew this couldn’t be good. If everything was fine, he would have just said so right away.

“You managed to make quite the mess of that knee. Now, there’s nothing fractured, and the joint is set right, however you’ve torn a tendon and damaged a few others.”

Sam didn’t like the sound of that and he suddenly got the feeling that it would be quite some time before he was able to walk normally again.

“How long will that take to heal?” He tried to push himself up a bit more. He needed to be completely awake for this conversation and for that he needed to not be lying down. Dean came over, moved the pillow a bit and stayed next to the bed, looking at the doctor. “He needs surgery, right?”

Sam looked at Dean and then at the doctor. Trent was nodding. “It’s an easy fix. We can do it here, but if you decide to go to a hospital…”

“No. We’ll do it here.” Sam had already made the decision, even though he didn’t know what that meant. Would he be sleeping, or would they be able to do it with local anesthetics?

“Sam. You sure?” Dean looked like he wasn’t sure it was a good idea, but Sam knew that had it been the other way around they would have had the exact same discussion reversed. “I’m sure. The man said he could do it.”

Sam ignored the disapproving look on his brother’s face and turned his attention to the doctor. “How will this go down?”

Trent leaned forward a bit and clearly did his best to not look at Dean. “Dani will monitor everything while you’re sleeping. I’ll make a small incision on the side of your knee and repair the damage. The whole thing won’t take more than an hour and a half to two hours.”

Sam needed to let the information sink in for a moment. He looked at all the people in the room, just waiting for him to respond. Even Dean seemed to be waiting for Sam to catch up.

“Can’t you do it with local anesthetics?”

“Sorry Sam. I know it would seem safer, but I need your knee and leg completely relaxed, you won’t be able to do that. Even without the pain you would feel me working.”

Sam for a second contemplated going to the hospital anyway, but the risk of someone finding them, daemons or angels. They didn’t know who to trust. Besides this Trent-guy seemed quite competent and sure of his offer to do this. Dean must have picked up on that too, otherwise he would have put up more of a fight and questioning everything. 

“Okay.”

“Okay?” Dean looked confused, maybe a bit angry. “You sure about this Sam?”

“I’m sure Dean. Let’s just do this so we can get back to…” He looked at the blonde siblings looking back at him. Dean had told him that they didn’t know anything about what they did. “…back to normal.”

Dean sighed. “Okay. If you insist, but I’m staying right here.”

“Would’ve expected nothing else.” Trent smiled, and he and Dani got to work. Unwrapping stuff, moving small furniture out of the way and some closer to put stuff on.

Sam and Dean observed them working in unison without exchanging more than a few words. Sam felt more confident in these people by the second, however he noticed Dean getting more tense. He was getting ready. Ready to keep an eye on everything, even if he had no idea what to look for. Soon the room reminded Sam of an operation room. Clear and clean, nothing more than what needed to be there.

Dani came over with a board of some sorts, a big square piece of hard plastic. Trent took a hold on his leg. “Dean help me here for a second.” Sam tensed as a reflex. “Relax Sam. We need something steady and clean under your knee, the bed won’t do. This is better than moving you.”

Sam could only agree with that. He tried his best to relax and let Dean and Trent lift his leg while Dani slid the board under. The plastic was cold to his skin and this suddenly got real. They covered him from his chest and down with light blue paper and Dani cut a hole over his bare knee.

Dean must have noticed Sam’s breathing speeding up, because at the same time he felt his older brother’s hand on his shoulder. “It’s not too late to change your mind. I’ll haul ass to a hospital right now if you say so.”

“I’m okay, Dean. Honest.”

Dean’s eyes lingered for a moment, clearly looking for deceive, but finally turned his attention back to the Pagett siblings dressing themselves in paper clothes now.

Dani came over first. “Ready Sam?”

Sam nodded, and Dean’s hand tightened on his shoulder. Dani folded the paper over Sam’s hand to the side and pressed a drug into the attachment that had led the morphine into his blood earlier.

Sam tried to relax, but it was difficult, not only wasn’t he completely convinced that this would go the way it should. Nothing never seemed to do so. But he also had the older brother standing next to him, holding on tighter to his shoulder every second. Sam looked at Dean; his eyes were locked at the doctor who was washing his hands at the moment. Dean’s breathing was slow, deep and controlled and his nostrils were flaring slightly. Dean was in high-alert.

“Dean.” Sam wanted to tell him to relax and sit down, but no more words would come. He felt heavy and he just managed to see Dean’s this-is-not-a big-deal smile coming at him. The last thing he heard, before he slept, was Dean’s voice; “Don’t worry, I’ll keep an eye on them. Now get some shut-eye.”

* * *

Dean had been asking about everything. “Does he really need a breathing tube?”, “Isn’t his pulse a bit too high?” and when things started to get too medically; “What does that mean?” and “Are you sure you’ve done this before?”

After half an hour trying to answer everything to Dean’s satisfaction, Trent had given up. “Dean. You don’t have any other choice than to trust me now, so please let me get this done. I’ll answer everything after.”

Dean had been caught off guard and just stood there looking at the young man who wat starting to look more and more like an adult to Dean. Dani had pulled up a chair and told Dean that he should keep an eye on a few numbers on a screen and let them know if they changed beyond a certain point.

Dean obliged and for over an hour he didn’t say anything, but he was still very aware of everything that went on in the room, and how the Pagetts talked to each other. They did seem to have everything under control and Trent even seemed like it wasn’t as bad as he’d first thought.

“Okay. Wake him up, then.”

Trent walked away from the bed to get cleaned up and Dani was already pressing something new in Sam’s vain before Dean could react. “Just a minute now.” She looked at Dean and then at his unconscious little brother.

It felt like half an hour vent by before Sam’s head turned a bit, not towards anything particular, but it must have been enough for the nurse to believe that he was waking up.

“I’ll take this out. He might be able to feel it, but he won’t remember it clearly.” She tilted Sam’s head back and in a quick and steady motion she pulled out the breathing tube. Dean watched as Sam gagged and turned his head all the way to the side, as to get away from the feeling.

“Couldn’t you have done that before he started waking?!” Dean stood up, to look down at his brother. Dani didn’t get a chance to answer. “Sam? You awake?” Sam let out a muffled sound like he was having a really good dream and didn’t want to wake up.

“He needs to wake up, fairly quickly.” Dani leaned over the bed to look down at the big man too. “Sam. Wake up. I need you to take a deep breath.”

Sam’s only reaction was to turn his head against Dean. Dean could swear he was looking at him even through the closed eyelids.

“Sammy?”

“Dean?” Sam was only whispering, but he had clearly recognized one of the voices in the room.

“Sammy. Breathe for a second okay.” Dean had realized that Sam wasn’t breathing properly, and he wasn’t sure he was getting any air at all. Sam took a deep breath which seemed to fill his lungs to the max and set the rhythm back on track.

His eye-lids started twitching but before he opened them he suddenly cried out and arched his back, so the back of his head was pressed hard into the mattress. As he opened his eyes and looked straight into Dean’s with pain and confusion, he grabbed Dean’s arm with one hand and the mattress with the other and cried out again.

“Morphine! Now!” Dean took a split second to look at the two other people in the room. Dani was already holding the plunger and Trent was trying to hold Sam’s hand still for her to get it attached. Dean turned his attention back to Sam who had stopped screaming, but only because he was on the verge of hyperventilating. The panic in his eyes was real, begging for help.

“You’re safe! Listen to me. The pain will stop in a second. Sammy. We’re safe!”

It seemed like the panic let go of his brother. Sam was able to look around the room and it seemed like he remembered, but he didn’t let go of Dean’s arm before the painkillers did their job. Which was most likely a few seconds later but both brothers would swear that it was way longer than that.

* * *

Sam had slept for a few hours after that and Dean had been able to get about half an hour of sporadic sleep in a chair. As the brothers decided that there was nothing more for them to do there, and Dean had insisted that he could drive on no sleep at all, and have been before, the doctors had no choice than to let them go on their way. Sam had gotten a brace that looked like something that had been discarded more than once, but it did the job. His leg was completely immobile and with the new stock of serious painkillers, he was content sitting in the back, even when Dean turned down that same forest road.


End file.
